Punch Bowl Social: Mall Bar

Strictly speaking, Punch Bowl Social (340 SW Morrison St., 334-0360, punchbowlsocial.com) isn’t located on the third floor of Pioneer Place Mall. Punch Bowl Social is
the third floor. The new megabar includes an arcade, darts, bowling,
pingpong, karaoke, foosball, shuffleboard and a balcony smoking area
overlooking downtown. The Portland branch of a Denver chain, Punch Bowl
is as classy as a shopping-mall bar with a giant plastic deer head on
the wall can hope to be. While the colored fluorescent lights make it
seem like the owners are going for a club vibe, flocks of screaming kids
ruin the mood. You have to pay extra for the activities—except marbles,
if you bring your own marbles. Bowling is a bargain from 10 pm to
close, but pingpong is always $10 an hour—leaving lots of empty space
around the tables. The restaurant is Applebee’s-esque and serves a $12
banh mi and $13 lamb burger. Even with three bars, the selection of
booze is bland ($4 Coors Light, $8 Barracuda with Skyy Vodka and house
jalapeño sour mix), seemingly tailored to the kind of patron who finds
Guinness or Tecate exotic. But with all this space, there’s not even one
pool table. To enjoy this place as a bar, you’re going to need a whole
lot of punch—a bowl with eight servings is $72—but it’s a hell of a
babysitter.